Vote Yes on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment

Guest Author - Susan Hubenthal

On June 6, 2005, the US Supreme Court made a ruling upholding
the power of the federal government to ban medical use of
marijuana. While this ruling does not change law in the states
that have passed medical marijuana protections, it does mean
that the federal government -- unfortunately -- will still have
the power to use its resources to undermine the will of the
voters or legislatures of those states.

I think that is wrong, and I urge you to take an important
opportunity coming up to set things right. The Hinchey
amendment, to be considered this month in the debate over the
Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill, would
prohibit the federal government from arresting, raiding or
prosecuting patients who are abiding by state medical marijuana
laws.

Please vote YES when the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment comes to
the floor. Medical marijuana patients and their providers should
not have to live in fear that police will break down their doors
and take them to jail because of their choice of medicine,
certainly not in states whose voters or legislators have voted
to protect them. That is a horrendous state of affairs, and it
is irrational to divert federal resources to attacking patients
that could otherwise be used to protect the nation from
terrorists who want to attack us.

Voting YES on the Hinchey amendment is the only compassionate,
rational, responsible choice that you can make on this
amendment.

* The Hinchey Amendment, which will come up during debate on
the House Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill
this month, would forbid the Dept. of Justice from using funds
to undermine state medical marijuana laws.

* More than three out of four Americans think medical use of
marijuana should be legal, according to polls, and twelve states
-- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada,
New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Washington --
have all enacted medical marijuana laws in recent years.

* Despite such strong support, the federal government continues
to block even research to determine marijuana's medical
benefits. Yet the 1999 Institute of Medicine report determined
that marijuana does have medical benefit.

* Medical organizations such as the American Nurses Association
and the American Academy of Family Physicians support legal
access to medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
* Blocking patients from receiving needed medicine --
threatening them with arrest, prosecution and incarceration --
is senseless and cruel.

* Congress should respect state's rights and not used armed
federal agents to threaten patients and providers who are in
compliance with state law.